Gloria Fletcher Thancoupie - Artist Info

About Gloria Fletcher Thancoupie

Name variants

Gloria Fletcher Thankupie
  • Biography

    Dr Thancoupie Gloria Fletcher James AO (1937-2011) was an Australian sculptural artist, educator, linguist and elder of the Thainakuith people in Weipa, in the Western Cape York area of far north Queensland. She was the last fluent speaker of the Thainakuith language and became a pillar of cultural knowledge in her community. She was also known as Thankupi, Thancoupie and Thanakupi.

    Thancoupie played a dynamic role in First Nations Australian arts, not only in her leadership of ceramics as a form of cultural expression for First Peoples, but was among the first to be recognised as an individual contemporary First Nations artist in Australia.

    Thancoupie also produced a number of works using metal, including her large-sca...

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